Give Roy Halladay a Reason to Stay: Spend Some Money

It’s the same sob story year after year for Toronto. Injuries and the AL East destroy the Jays’ shot at October yet the Blue Jays are really only a few moves away from building a team that could contend in October. They Jays have a new G.M. and hopefully Anthopolous can make some good moves.

The Jays have an extremely talented core but they’ll need to make some supplementary moves, which would allow them to compete with the likes of the Yankees and the Red Sox.Toronto has ditched the contracts of A.J. Burnett and Alex Rios over the past two year so they have some money to spend. The Blue Jays were in first for most of April, which means that they can compete if all goes well.

.Pull the trigger on the Snyder/Overbay deal. Barajas is a decent catcher but he doesn’t really have much upside. He can’t hit and while his power was ok last year you can’t really rely on him for anything. Overbay has also been pretty inconsistent. Snyder gives them a great defensive catcher and a pretty solid hitter. He’s coming off an injury-marred season so his value is low as well. Trading Overbay would also open up first base for Adam Lind, who is less than spectacular in the outfield. If they can’t get Snyder then they should still look for ways to move Overbay and sign a new catcher.

Spend some money on a solid number two pitcher. Roy Halladay has stated that he will consider staying in Canada if the Blue Jays show that they will make the moves necessary to win. Toronto relied to heavily on its rookies and while they performed admirably, you can’t rely on a rotation composed of four rookies. Jesse Litsch and Shaun Marcum are coming back from injuries (possibly Dustin McGowan also). Toronto needs a Randy Wolf type starter who won’t be the ace but will still put them in a position to win and takes pressure of the young starters.

Resign Marco Scutaro. Scutaro should’ve made the All Star game this year. He had a great year and has expressed a desire to stay in Toronto. He’s a type A free agent and a lot of teams are cautious to spend money and draft picks on an aging shortstop. Unless the Red Sox offer him a ridiculous contract, Toronto would be foolish not to bring him back.

Sign a power hitter. I’m not expecting the Jays to sign Matt Holliday or Jason Bay (although it would be nice to see Bay in Canada) but the Jays need more power. Hill and Lind were great but they need help. A guy like Vladmir Guerrero or Hideki Matsui would take pressure off of them and not break the Jays bank. Or they could try a reclamation project and take a chance on a guy like Xavier Nady. The free agent market isn’t great but it isn’t bad enough that the Jays should stay quiet like they did last year. Millar was good for the clubhouse but they should look to upgrade.

Is it realistic that the Jays will make all these moves? No, but all of them at once is certainly possible. On paper these moves don’t put them on par with the Yankees or the Red Sox but it would allow them to maintain the first place status we saw them achieve last year. Fans are tired of losing and there’s no real good reason to make them sit through another down year.